let's talk about Pot Part 2

Today I will try to give a little history on Cannabis or as it is also known Hemp. I will use as a source Uncle John's Legendary Lost Bathroom Reader 5th, 6th and 7th Volume in one. I am sure you know hemp was cultivated for 10000 years, still it was sudden outlawed in 1937. Hemp was a very useful product. Used and woven into things like sails paper canvas[the word canvas comes from the word cannabis] seeds are high in protein. Used in lighting and lubration oils animal feed; extracts of its leafs have been used in a range of medicines and tonics.
A little history, Washington and Jefferson both grew it,our first flags used it. The first and second drafts of Declaration Independence were written on Dutch hemp paper. Canvas was used in the covered wagons of pioneers, Levis worn in the gold fields of California were made from it.
Mary Todd Lincoln's family was a large grower in Kentucky of it. After the Civil War it was the second most common cloth in American only cotton was cheaper and easier to produce.Maple sugar combined with resins{hashish} was sold over the counter as a harmless candy.Hemp was by the Navy for as a mainstay for rope.
So what happen...a few large companies conspired to have it banned as a threat to people health, or a threat to a few large companies that would profit from its ban. Lets take a short look at a few influence companies. in 1937 when hemp was outlawed a machine was invent called the Decorticator Machine, a machine that could produce 3 tons an hour of higher quality fibers than the wood base pulp and be cheaper,hemp would under cut the competing products.Popular Mechanics predicted and point out 10,000 acres of hemp would produce as much paper as 40000 acres of trees.
So lets take a look at a couple who would benefit from the outlawing of hemp.First was William Randolph Hearst whose for fortune was tied up in the product of wood pulp products and 1000's of acre of trees. His newspapers ran stories under headlines like"Marijuana makes dope fiends of boys in 30 days". "Hasheesh [sic] goads users to blood-lust"," New dope lure,Marijuana,has many victims". Hearst quoted the new new Federal Bureau of Narcotics {FBN} Harry Anslinger often in his Newspapers. Hearst and Anslinger campaign against hemp worked because in 1937 closed door hearings Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act which outlawed marijuana in America.All the non medical uses were ban rope to industrial lubricants were taxed out of existences.
The DuPont company also had an interest in the outlawing of hemp since it sold chemicals to wood pulp products as it was developing and patenting new sulfuric acid processes for wood pulp production. A couple of years after the tax was passed new synthetic miracle fabrics Nylon and Rayon were developed for clothes.Future profits were expected to be in the millions and DuPont controlled them. These profits could have been wiped out by the new hemp process.Now for the ties to government by these companies. Anslinger was appointed to FBN by Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon who was chairman of Mellon Bank,Du Ponts chief financial backer. Anslinger connect to Mellon wasn't just political he was married to Mellons daughter. Also the AMA officials testified to congress and were quickly denounced by Anslinger and the committee and curtly excused
After the capture of Philippine in World War II, causing a shortage of hemp rope which was still used by the Navy, the government revised itself and overnight urged hemp cultivation and product a film "Hemp For Victory",then recriminalized hemp after shortage passed.Hemp oil was used as a lubricate in plane engines,webbing in parachute harnesses, and all rigging in the ships of the Navy and fire hose abroad ships.
Does the conspiracy continue? In 1992 the Drug Enforcement Agency rejected a petition to let doctors prescribe marijuana for people in constant pain stating"Beyond doubt the claims that marijuana is medicine are false,dangerous and cruel". But according to federal administrative law judge Francis Young," the record clearly shows that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving distress of great numbers of very ill people and doing so with safety under medical supervision".

So the debate goes on how do you feel and think should the Marijuana Laws be changed and could pot be legal for use tax revival would help in the trying times we live and the storage of money state county and local governments face. Who knows but at least keep an open mind.